CU Buffs beaten by hot-shooting UCLA Bruins

Colorado unable to pull off L.A. sweep

UCLA Bruins forward Travis Wear, center, puts up a shot as Colorado Buffaloes forwards Austin Dufault, left, and Andre Roberson defend during the second half of their game Saturday in Los Angeles. UCLA won 77-60.
(
Mark J. Terrill
)

CU-UCLA men's box score. CLICK TO ENLARGE.

LOS ANGELES -- Tad Boyle had the best team in the city for 59 minutes.

And then trouble started Bruin.

Colorado allowed two 3-pointers in the final 51.2 seconds of the first half and was outscored 37-24 in the second half of Saturday's 77-60 loss to UCLA in front of a season-high crowd of 9,253 at the L.A. Sports Arena.

The Buffs, who fell out of a tie for first-place in the Pac-12, had been holding opponents to 38.8 percent shooting entering the game. The Bruins made 31-of-52 shots (59.6 percent) and finished with 26 assists.

"They played better than us. Period," CU senior guard Carlon Brown said after being held to six points. "They shot the ball well, they executed better, and they made our defense look pretty bad.

CU led 36-34 before allowing Tyler Lamb and Norman Powell to drain open looks from behind the arc just before the break.

"We're the best field-goal percentage defensive team in the league," Boyle noted. "And they made us look silly."

The Bruins (12-9, 5-4) took control of the game with a 10-0 run that stretched from the final moments of the first half until a Lazeric Jones' basket with 18:55 remaining.

Joshua Smith and Travis Wear threw down powerful dunks during another surge as UCLA extended its lead to as many as 19 points.

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"At halftime, coach said we were playing pretty good defense and they were just knocking down a lot of shots," CU freshman guard Askia Booker said. "We didn't think they would come out in the second half and be that hot."

After shooting 57.7 percent through 20 minutes, the Bruins went 16-for-26 (61.5 percent) in the second half.

Jones finished with 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting with nine assists and four turnovers in 37 minutes. Lamb added 13 points, making 3-of-5 3-point attempts, and was even more impressive on the defensive end.

"Lamb was great on defense on Brown, their leading scorer," UCLA head coach Ben Howland said. "I give him a lot of credit for his all-around game today. ... This was a very solid win against a good and well-coached team."

CU, which led 7-0 en route to a business-like 74-50 victory over USC to start the trip on Thursday night, forced Howland to call an early timeout after a dunk by Andre Roberson gave the Buffs a 9-2 head start. The momentum was short-lived as the Bruins used a 12-0 spurt to take a 21-15 lead midway through the first half.

UCLA capped an 18-1 run with a 3-pointer by Jerime Anderson to seize a 26-16 advantage. Los Angeles area freshmen Spencer Dinwiddie and Booker combined to score the next six points to get the visitors settled down.

An Austin Dufault bucket in transition followed by a dunk by Shane Harris-Tunks tied the score 32-32.

"We can't play one half. We did the same thing against Cal and the same thing against Stanford," Brown lamented. "In the second half, we forgot how to play basketball. I did a bad job as a leader. I didn't make any plays and I turned the ball over too much.

"I'm going to do better, and our team is going to do better."

Roberson led CU with 12 points and 10 rebounds, the sophomore's 13th double-double of the season. Booker added a team-high 13 points off the bench.

Both teams had 27 rebounds, but UCLA had a 32-22 scoring edge in the paint. David and Travis Wear, 6-10 twin forwards, combined for 25 points and 10 rebounds with the 6-10, 305-pound Smith bruising his way to eight points.

However, it was the Bruins' 9-for-13 effort behind the arc that really hurt CU.

"I thought we had great focus against USC and played well enough to win. But they're struggling right now, and everybody knows that," Boyle said. "UCLA is not struggling, they're a good team and they've gotten better since the beginning of the year. Their record is very deceiving.

"They're as good as anybody in our league talent-wise and coaching-wise. It's wide open."

The Buffs return home to play Oregon State on Thursday and Oregon on Saturday at the Coors Events Center.

UCLA does not have to play at CU or Utah this season in the unbalanced Pac-12 schedule.

"We have to go back home and win our next two for sure," Booker said. "If we do that, we'll be back somewhere right in that top area (of the standings).

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